The document outlines a project aiming to enhance institutional responses to coastal hazards in the Maldives by implementing a multi-agency situational awareness platform called SAMBRO, based on the open-source Sahana software. The project's goals include providing location-specific alerts, integrating stakeholders for improved coordination during disasters, and developing a group of master trainers for sustainability. Key activities involve stakeholder consultations, training, platform implementation, and performance evaluation, culminated by disseminating results to enhance national and regional responses to hazards.

1. CAP on a MAP
Improving Institutional Responsiveness to Coastal
Hazards through Multi-Agency Situational
Awareness
Manzul K. Hazarika, Ph.D.
Associate Director, Geoinformatics Center
Asian Institute of Technology (AIT)
Thailand
manzul@ait.asia

2. Background
§ Aftermath of the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami, UN-ESCAP established the Tsunami Trust Fund (TTF).
§ A number of projects have been implemented since then on tsunami hazard and risk assessment.
§ We plan to use the existing hazard and risk maps for location specific alerts/early warnings.
§ To this effect, we propose to use an open-source platform called “Sahana”.
§ Sahana will be customized for providing hazard and location specific alerts/early warnings.
§ Sahana will be further developed for sharing situational-awareness information for responders.

3. Project Goal
The main goal is to operationalize a CAP-enabled Multi-Agency Situational Awareness (MASA) platform,
called SAMBRO (Sahana Alerting and Messaging Broker) in the Maldives in order to:
§ Provide location specific alerts/warnings
§ Integrate all the stakeholders through a common information exchange hub for better coordination at the
time of a disaster.

4. Project Objectives
Objectives of this project are:
§ To improve national capacities for providing hazard and location specific alerts/warnings according to risks.
§ To augment national capacities for maintaining a register of alerting/warnings authorities for creating,
authorizing, issuing, auditing, and receiving MASA alerts.
§ To share situational-awareness information with the responders, line-agencies, and other stakeholders to
consolidate their efforts and operate as one entity to minimize the duplication of efforts.
§ To develop a group of master trainers in each participating country for sustainability of the efforts.

5. Project Organization

6. Project Beneficiaries
The project is implemented in collaboration with NDMC and all relevant stakeholders below.
§ Government agencies that carry out hazard/risk modeling or agencies that issues alerts/ warnings.
§ Civil societies/NGOs that have the capacity to interpret and respond to CAP-enabled alerts and warnings.
§ Local Authorities which play a key role in ensuring the delivery of early warnings to the vulnerable
populations and triggering the necessary preparedness actions on the "last mile" of the early warning system.
§ Communities that are expected to participate in drills.
§ Private Sector are the media and communications service providers, such as TV, radio, mobile operators,
ISP etc. with capacity to receive alerts/warnings and relay them over their networks.

7. Project Activities and Time-line

8. Activity 1: Kick-off workshop for information
stocktaking & stakeholder consultations
Aim is to understand the available resources and capacity development requirements for implementing
CAP and operationalizing the Sahana platform.
§ Present and explain about the implementation of a CAP-enabled MASA platform - SAMBRO
§ Present about hazard, vulnerabilities and risk assessment for preparing alert area templates.
§ Development of the national “CAP Implementation Profile” for the Maldives.
§ Formation of a CAP working group

9. Activity 2: Training of Trainers at AIT
Training of trainers (Technology Steward/System Administrator) for managing the CAP implementation
using the Sahana software.
§ Installing of CAP-enabled MASA
§ Training on Sahana’s Alerting and Messaging Broker (SAMBRO)
§ Training on Sahana’s Community Resilience Mapping Tools (CRMT)
§ Development of hazard specific CAP-enabled pre-populated alerts/warnings templates

10. Activity 3 & 4: Implement CAP and Operationalize the
Platform
§ Define necessary parameters, collect relevant data, and implement the CAP standards in
collaboration with the CAP Working Group.
§ Test the CAP-enabled Sahana platform implementation to ensure it meets all design requirements
§ Operationalize the same for using by the alerting authorities.

11. Activity 5: Evaluation the Platform
Conduct a series of drills to evaluate the performance, acceptance, and effectiveness of the platform.

12. Activity 6: Dissemination of Results
All project outcomes will be documented in a final technical report as well as in online and print media to
share with the relevant practitioner towards improving the national and regional responses to coastal
hazards.

13. Thank you for your kind attention